Out Now Consulting

Last updated
Out Now
TypeCompany
IndustryMarketing
Genre Gay marketing specialist
Founded1992/2001
FounderIan Johnson
HeadquartersAustralia, Netherlands
Area served
Europe, US, Australia
ServicesMarket research, strategy, advertising, PR, training
Parent Significant Others
Website http://OutNowConsulting.com/

Out Now Consulting is a marketing agency that provides specialised gay marketing services to large companies by researching gay lifestyles and using the information to develop strategies to target gay and lesbian consumers.

Contents

Origins

Although Out Now is a Dutch company, its origins lie in the formation of an Australian company, Significant Others, which after its establishment in 1992 became known in Australian media over subsequent years for its work as a specialist gay marketing agency. [1] [2] [3]

Significant Others presented the Keynote address at the world's first gay marketing conference in 1994. [4]

Following the establishment of an office in Amsterdam, Out Now became the first business of its kind with agencies in more than one country. [5] [6] [7]

Activities are now undertaken in the US, UK, Germany, Belgium, France, Ireland and The Netherlands markets.

Out Now's role in the development of gay marketing in various countries has been discussed in the Dutch language edition of 'Principes van Marketing' (Principles of Marketing) - a marketing textbook - by Dr. Philip Kotler. [8]

Areas of work

The company works in five areas: market research, advertising, training, PR and strategy development and is cited by mainstream media as an authority on gay consumer issues. [9]

Out Now won a Commercial Closet Association 'Images In Advertising' award in New York (June 11, 2007) in the "Outstanding Interactive" campaign category for an online promotion for Lufthansa. [10] [11]

The agency has initiated research projects for gay and lesbian media in several countries including Sydney Star Observer, DNA Magazine (Australia), Gay Community News (Ireland), Diva, Gay Times, Bent (magazine) (United Kingdom) and De Gay Krant (Netherlands), such research usually being the first marketing analysis of gay consumers. [12]

The resulting findings have been reported in various international media. [13] [14]

Other work includes social research - such as a 2004 work on discrimination in the Netherlands. [15]

Industry role

In June 2006, the MD of Out Now Consulting was Keynote speaker for the Pink Pound Conference held in London. [16]

In November 2006 Out Now presented a Keynote seminar at the world's second largest travel conference, London World Travel Market. [17]

Out Now presented at the February 2007 Marketing For Good event in London which for the first time considered gay marketing topics. [18]

In August 2007 the Market Research Society reported that Out Now was to undertake a "major survey of the lifestyles and spending power of the UK's three million gay consumers". [19]

In February 2015, the firm became the first organization in the world to be allocated a dedicated .LGBT domain name". [20]

'So gay' campaign

During 2008, a UK travel advertising campaign created by Out Now which used the term "So Gay" as an advertising slogan attracted global media attention. [21] [22]

The poster campaign featured six US destinations seeking to attract gay travelers from the UK. One poster saying "South Carolina is so gay" was criticized by a Republican State Senator and the office of South Carolina governor Mark Sanford, [23] but was favorably received by members of the gay community. [24]

The campaign was later described as "the year's most talked about tourism ads" by several media outlets, including AdWeek. [25]

Notes

  1. Liz Hayes (1994), "TV interview of Out Now / Significant Others CEO", Nine Network, Today (Australian TV program)
  2. Amanda Keller (1996), "'The Hub' - Australian TV program on Significant Others", Foxtel
  3. Hubble, Ava (September 26, 1994), "The Guide - Media - Significant Others advises John Singleton and Barrie Unsworth on gay media market", Sydney Morning Herald , p. 2
  4. Chasing The Pink Dollar conference, Sydney, Australia. April 1994
  5. Lucassen, Christine (February 5, 2002), "Tapping Into The €400 bn gay market - Marketing group Out Now advises clients on ways of targeting 'pink' euro", International Herald Tribune - NL edition, p. 2
  6. Gons, Piet Hein (February 7, 2002), "The First Office Outside Australia of Gay Marketing Agency Out Now Is Opened in Amsterdam - Beweer nooit dat je een homomerk bent - Het eerste kantoor buiten Australie van homomarketing-bureau Out Now is onslangs geopend in Amsterdam", Adformatie , p. 16
  7. Emily Maitlis (2006), "UK TV News coverage of Out Now", BBC
  8. Kotler, Philip (2006), Principes Van Marketing (Principles of Marketing), Pearson Education, pp. 365–367, ISBN   90-430-1071-5
  9. Barker, Andrew (April 12, 2007), "Same-sex ads swim into mainstream - Industry embraces buying power of gay market", Variety
  10. Commercial Closet 'Images In Advertising' award winners
  11. Quartini, Joelle L. (June 15, 2007), "Image Makers - Commercial Closet honors advertising that includes gays.", New York Blade , archived from the original on October 24, 2007 Scholar search
  12. "How Green is the Pink Euro? New Ireland Gay Market Study To Find Out", Echelon Magazine, 2006, archived from the original on January 8, 2007, retrieved 2007-08-04 Scholar search
  13. Bloomfield, Steve (January 29, 2006), "Closet UK: 49% of gay people are too scared to come out at work", The Independent
  14. Burnett, Scott (March 2, 2007), "Business of Gay Weddings", Financial Mail
  15. "Gaykrant-onderzoek: Tolerantie is op z'n retour", Homo Emancapatie, August 6, 2004, archived from the original on March 11, 2007
  16. Pink Pound Conference, 22 June 2006
  17. "World Travel Market - WTM Gay and Lesbian Market webinar", Reed Business Exhibitions, 2007, retrieved 2007-08-04
  18. Marketing For Good conference, 28 February 2007
  19. Bain, Robert (August 28, 2007), "Out Now Consulting to conduct 'groundbreaking' study into the UK's three million gay consumers", Research-live.com, retrieved 2007-08-29
  20. BBC newsbeat report (February 12, 2015), "The first websites ending with the domain name LGBT go online", BBC.co.uk, retrieved 2015-07-22
  21. Adams, William Lee (July 17, 2008), "S. Carolina Huffs Over UK 'Gay' Ads", Time , archived from the original on July 21, 2008
  22. Baker, Vicky (July 16, 2008), "South Carolina - not 'so gay' after all", The Guardian
  23. Lisa Mullins (July 14, 2008), "London ad campaign upsets South Carolina", PRI The World (radio program)
  24. Ivey, Page (July 23, 2008), "South Carolina's 'so gay' travel ad upsets state officials", USA Today
  25. Lee, Tom (February 5, 2009), "Millions see 'So Gay' ad", Pink Paper , archived from the original on 16 July 2011, retrieved 2009-05-19

Related Research Articles

Advertising Form of communication for marketing, typically paid for

Advertising is a marketing communication that employs an openly sponsored, non-personal message to promote or sell a product, service or idea. Sponsors of advertising are typically businesses wishing to promote their products or services. Advertising is differentiated from public relations in that an advertiser pays for and has control over the message. It differs from personal selling in that the message is non-personal, i.e., not directed to a particular individual. Advertising is communicated through various mass media, including traditional media such as newspapers, magazines, television, radio, outdoor advertising or direct mail; and new media such as search results, blogs, social media, websites or text messages. The actual presentation of the message in a medium is referred to as an advertisement: advert or ad for short.

Marketing refers to activities a company undertakes to promote the buying or selling of a product, service, or good.

LGBT community Community and culture of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people

The LGBT community is a loosely defined grouping of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, LGBT organizations, and subcultures, united by a common culture and social movements. These communities generally celebrate pride, diversity, individuality, and sexuality. LGBT activists and sociologists see LGBT community-building as a counterweight to heterosexism, homophobia, biphobia, transphobia, sexualism, and conformist pressures that exist in the larger society. The term pride or sometimes gay pride expresses the LGBT community's identity and collective strength; pride parades provide both a prime example of the use and a demonstration of the general meaning of the term. The LGBT community is diverse in political affiliation. Not all people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender consider themselves part of the LGBT community.

Mass marketing is a marketing strategy in which a firm decides to ignore market segment differences and appeal the whole market with one offer or one strategy, which supports the idea of broadcasting a message that will reach the largest number of people possible. Traditionally, mass marketing has focused on radio, television and newspapers as the media used to reach this broad audience. By reaching the largest audience possible, exposure to the product is maximized, and in theory this would directly correlate with a larger number of sales or buys into the product.

Direct marketing Model of communicating discounts and other sales offers

Direct marketing is a form of communicating an offer, where organizations communicate directly to a pre-selected customer and supply a method for a direct response. Among practitioners, it is also known as direct response marketing. By contrast, advertising is of a mass-message nature.

LGBT tourism Tourism marketed to LGBT people

LGBT tourism is a form of tourism marketed to gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people. People might be open about their sexual orientation and gender identity at times, but less so in areas known for violence against LGBT people.

Online advertising Form of advertising

Online advertising, also known as online marketing, Internet advertising, digital advertising or web advertising, is a form of marketing and advertising which uses the Internet to deliver promotional marketing messages to consumers. Many consumers find online advertising disruptive and have increasingly turned to ad blocking for a variety of reasons.

Social marketing has the primary goal of achieving "common good". Traditional commercial marketing aims are primarily financial, though they can have positive social effects as well. In the context of public health, social marketing would promote general health, raise awareness and induce changes in behaviour. Social marketing has been a large industry for some time now and was originally done with newspapers and billboards, but similar to commercial marketing has adapted to the modern world. The most common use of social marketing in today's society is through social media. However, to see social marketing as only the use of standard commercial marketing practices to achieve non-commercial goals is an oversimplified view.

LGBT marketing

LGBT marketing is the act of marketing to LGBT customers, either with dedicated ads or general ads, or through sponsorships of LGBT organizations and events, or the targeted use of any other element of the marketing mix.

Business marketing is a marketing practice of individuals or organizations. It allows them to sell products or services to other companies or organizations that resell them, use them in their products or services or use them to support their works. It is a way to promote business and improve profit too.

A target audience is the intended audience or readership of a publication, advertisement, or other message catered specifically to said intended audience. In marketing and advertising, it is a particular group of consumers within the predetermined target market, identified as the targets or recipients for a particular advertisement or message. Businesses that have a wide target market will focus on a specific target audience for certain messages to send, such as The Body Shops Mother's Day advertisements, which were aimed at the children and spouses of women, rather than the whole market which would have included the women themselves.

The Commercial Closet Association (CCA) was a New York City based non-profit organization, founded in 2001 to provide "training and best practices on the representation of" the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community. It hoped to affect the $1.1 trillion annual worldwide advertising market. Its board announced its closure in 2009 after merging with the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD).

Account planning brings the focus on the consumer into the process of developing advertising. Planning is a job function relating to the application of strategy and planning. The discipline and its tools and techniques help to build unique directions, propositions and communications concepts across advertising and marketing channels. The Account Planner, or simply Planner, has a role to identify and empathise with the target market and utilise multiple types of data to unlock insight that creates value between the consumer, the brand and the category of Product (business) or service. The thoughts and observations are construed into a value proposition and make up a document, often called a Creative Brief, that is used to create and inspire advertising campaigns and other marketing communications.

Mobile advertising is a form of advertising via mobile (wireless) phones or other mobile devices. It is a subset of mobile marketing, mobile advertising can take place as text ads via SMS, or banner advertisements that appear embedded in a mobile web site.

Digital marketing Marketing of products or services using digital technologies or digital tools

Digital marketing is the component of marketing that utilizes internet and online based digital technologies such as desktop computers, mobile phones and other digital media and platforms to promote products and services. Its development during the 1990s and 2000s, changed the way brands and businesses use technology for marketing. As digital platforms became increasingly incorporated into marketing plans and everyday life, and as people increasingly use digital devices instead of visiting physical shops, digital marketing campaigns have become prevalent, employing combinations of search engine optimization (SEO), search engine marketing (SEM), content marketing, influencer marketing, content automation, campaign marketing, data-driven marketing, e-commerce marketing, social media marketing, social media optimization, e-mail direct marketing, display advertising, e–books, and optical disks and games have become commonplace. Digital marketing extends to non-Internet channels that provide digital media, such as television, mobile phones, callback, and on-hold mobile ring tones. The extension to non-Internet channels differentiates digital marketing from online marketing.

Pink money Term referring to the purchasing power of LGBT people

Pink money describes the purchasing power of the LGBT community, often especially with respect to political donations. With the rise of the gay rights movement, pink money has gone from being a fringe or marginalized market to a thriving industry in many parts of the Western world such as the United States and United Kingdom. Many businesses now specifically cater to gay customers, including nightclubs, shops, restaurants, and even taxicabs; the demand for these services stems from common discrimination by traditional businesses.

Social media marketing is the use of social media platforms and websites to promote a product or service. Although the terms e-marketing and digital marketing are still dominant in academia, social media marketing is becoming more popular for both practitioners and researchers. Most social media platforms have built-in data analytics tools, enabling companies to track the progress, success, and engagement of ad campaigns. Companies address a range of stakeholders through social media marketing, including current and potential customers, current and potential employees, journalists, bloggers, and the general public. On a strategic level, social media marketing includes the management of a marketing campaign, governance, setting the scope and the establishment of a firm's desired social media "culture" and "tone."

Multicultural marketing is the practice of marketing to one or more audiences of a specific ethnicity—typically an ethnicity outside of a country's majority culture, which is sometimes called the "general market." Typically, multicultural marketing takes advantage of the ethnic group's different cultural referents—such as language, traditions, celebrations, religion and any other concepts—to communicate to and persuade that audience. Cultural and Ethnic variation in multi-cultural societies such as the United States provides marketers with the opportunity to connect with consumers by developing consumer segments for targeted marketing initiatives. For example, insight into to the culture and ethnicity of consumers is applied directly to consumer targeting through a variety of marketing initiatives in the U.S.

Sony marketing Variety of marketing techniques used by the Sony Corporation

The Japanese technology company, Sony, engages in a variety of different marketing efforts, as one of the world's largest and most pervasive corporations. Sony's former slogans have been "The One and Only", "It's a Sony", "Go Create" (Europe), "Intensify your life" (Vietnam), "like.no.other" and "make.believe". Its current slogan is "Be Moved".

Uwern Jong British entrepreneur

Uwern Jong is a British Asian entrepreneur, journalist, editor and inclusive-tourism advocate. Jong co-founded OutThere (magazine) in 2010. Jong is also founder of Southeast Asia’s first LGBTQ+ travel symposium for the Tourism Authority of Thailand and through OutThere, developed Thailand's “Go Thai Be Free” LGBTQ travel campaign and website, as part as the government’s strategy to attract more diverse tourists to the country. Jong is credited as an Editor who has been a "material player in the advancement of LGBTQ+ rights.” He is an inclusive tourism advocate, promoting a more diverse media landscape and better recruitment and representation in the travel industry.